Are there any picture book catchphrases that have entered the cultural lexicon? I’m serious in asking this, but I’m a poor judge of what everyone knows. When you spend your days reading lines like “He was a big FAT caterpillar” aloud and then find yourself working those phrases into your everyday speech, you’re not exactly the best average consumer. Still, even I know that when you look at the great picture book classics, they may be great books but you don’t hear words or phrases from them showing up in late night talk show opening monologues or anything. Leno isn’t throwing out a “Let me drive the bus!” reference and Conan isn’t bringing up Madeline’s line to the tiger in the zoo. The closest I can come up with might be Goodnight Moon and its lulling lines. If a comedian starts saying, “Good night” in a variety in different ways, folks know what they mean. Otherwise, there’s not much. Maybe Little Chicken’s Big Day will change all that. Because when it comes to memorable lines, I suspect Katie and Jerry Davis are going to go down in history for inspiring a whole generation of kids to chirp cheerily to their parents, “I hear you clucking, Big Chicken”.
It’s early in the morning and it’s time for Little Chicken to get dressed, wash his face, and get ready for the day. Each time his mother tells him these things he comes back with a prompt, “I hear you cluckin’, Big Chicken.” Then it’s off to have some fun. Yet while following his mother Little Chicken gets pretty distracted. A lovely butterfly catches his eye and next thing he knows he’s alone. Fortunately, mama’s not far away calling his name, to which he replies (all together now) “I hear you cluckin’, Big Chicken.” Then home and bed and when her baby whispers, “I love you, Mama” it meets a gentle “I hear you cluckin’, Little Chicken.”
The given story behind the book’s creation is that co-author Jerry Davis worked or knew a fellow employee who, when asked to do anything by his boss, would reply “I hear you cluckin’, Big Chicken.” It really was a natural fit for the picture book format, though of course the tone is entirely different. In the original format it was a snarky line. Here it does have a bit of cheek to it at first, but as it goes each version of it has a different meaning. Cheeky first. Bothered next. Overjoyed the third time. Loving at last. On a personal level I appreciated the fact that they removed the “g” in the word “clucking” too. The story itself is really just there to hang on the already existing phrase. We’ve loads of stories for kids about getting separated from a parent and finding them again, but they kind of blur together a
I actually knew kids in grad school who used “I hear you clucking, Big Chicken” on Facebook. I think many people would recognize “Who speaks for the trees” –and maybe “A person’s a person, no matter how small,” but that may be my Horton-prejudice. Would “O Best Beloved” count, since Kipling illustrated it?
My co-workers and I are actually quite fond of, “I am not a happy pig,” which we owe to the Immortal Mo.
In the Appelt family, we often say, “Thank you, thank you, Sam I Am,” followed closely by, “I think I always wanted (fill in the blank),” in the great tradition of Corduroy, whose line, “I think I always wanted a real friend,” is forever carved upon our tongues.
We also greet the cats in the morning with, “Milk! Milk! Milk for the morning cats!” Okay, it’s a slight derivation from “milk for the morning cakes,” but we’re hoping Maurice doesn’t mind.
K
We often quote Green Eggs and Ham too, but mostly because we actually have a Sam. Also, no one can so much as mention hot dogs without a complete recital of The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog happening. But those are more personal family injokes than popular catchphrases.
What about “If you give a mouse a cookie…”? That’s heading in that direction.